


4th of July

by ElStark



Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Bucky is not impressed, Fluff and Angst, Light Angst, M/M, Protective Bucky Barnes, Protective Steve Rogers, Steve Rogers Feels, Steve Rogers's Birthday, Steve gets himself trapped trying to find a cure for Bucky's conditioning, a bit of, and they hug!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-04
Updated: 2017-07-04
Packaged: 2018-11-23 09:43:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11400024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElStark/pseuds/ElStark
Summary: “I cannot fucking believe you managed to get kidnapped on the day of your fucking birthday!”“Well, technically I wasn’t kidnapped. I just fell into a trap,” Steve retorted.





	4th of July

**Author's Note:**

  * For [charlesdk](https://archiveofourown.org/users/charlesdk/gifts).



> Happy Birthday to the old man!

“I cannot fucking _believe_ you managed to get kidnapped on the day of your fucking birthday!”

“Well, technically I wasn’t kidnapped. I just fell into a trap,” Steve retorted. “And that happened two days ago, you just managed to show up today, on my birthday.” He smiled a little to himself, thinking how he got the only thing he’d wished for since Bucky had gone under ice, again.

“I see, you’re still as stupid as to fall into a fucking stupid trap,” Bucky snapped back.

Steve could’ve laughed out loud from how happy he was. Having Bucky snap at his idiocy was the closest he’d felt at home since he plunged the Valkyrie in the ocean.

They were sitting back to back, on a cold, damp floor of a cell god knows how many feet under the ground, with no light, except for the shadow of a fluorescent light coming from somewhere above their cell.

Steve couldn’t have seen Bucky’s face even if he’d be standing right in front of him an inch from his nose, so he’d gladly obliged when Bucky wordlessly settled them in their current position, feeling ecstatic just from the feeling of his best friend’s back pressing to his own.

“I can’t believe you came to save me,” he said, still with the stupid smile stretching his lips. “Last time I saw you, you were in… _there_.” he finished off lamely, his smile suddenly feeling a bit too tight at the corners.

“And of course, as soon as I got out I had to come save your dumb ass because as always you gotta do dumb shit that put your life in danger.”

“Hey! It’s dumb _heroic_ shit. I don’t do stupid, unless there’s a _reason_ for it.”

“Let’s hear it then, your reason.”

Steve could practically hear him rolling his eyes, and the knowledge arguably made him the happiest he’s been in a while. Bucky sounded more like himself than he did in a very long time.

“I’m waiting,” Bucky pushed back a little –his hair tickling the nape of Steve’s neck– probably to get Steve to share what on earth made him desperate enough to ignore all the blaring warning signs and land himself face-first in the deepest hole he’d ever dug himself.

“They promised me something,” Steve finally, said.

“What?” Bucky demanded. “What could possibly be worth following them into this fucking hole?”

“The only thing I’ve ever wanted more in my life, Buck.” Steve pressed his back more firmly, “a chance to get you back.”

Bucky was silent for a long, long time. So long, that Steve started to squirm, getting his body to touch the one behind as much as possible, to reassure himself that Bucky was still there. That he wasn’t alone, and that he hadn’t been imagining their whole interaction.

“I’m sorry, Buck.” Steve blurt out. “I don’t’ wanna make it seem like it’s your fault I’m here. It’s not, at all. I got my dumb ass in here all on my own. And I know it’s selfish, but I just wanted you back, and when they said they could reverse what Hydra had done to you, I didn’t think. I didn’t think at all. I just kept seeing you smiling at me, that stupid big smile that makes your eyes bright, and I just–” he choked out a little hurt sound that made Bucky make one of his own and turn to gather Steve against him, wrapping his arms firmly around him. Steve was more than happy to hug him back, “I would’ve walked through fire just to see you open your eyes and look at me like that one more time.” Steve buried his nose in the crook of Bucky’s neck, breathing him in. “And what do you know, it kind of worked, you’re here now.”

“Natalia found a way.” Bucky said, “she’s been working undercover since a few months?”

Steve made an affirmative noise and nodded, holding Bucky tighter.

“She was there when they pulled me out, Natalia and Sam. They were about to call you in from the mission. Apparently you’d given them permission to do that no matter what and no matter when, as long as it concerned me.” Steve couldn’t see his face, sitting as he was chest to chest, practically on Bucky’s lap, but he could still hear the smile in his voice. “I have to say, that’s pretty unprofessional for Captain America.”

“M’no Captain America, not anymore,” Steve said, brushing his lips against Bucky’s neck as he did so.

Bucky hummed. “They lost your signal minutes before they were going to tell you. They tried to hide it from me,” he chuckled humourlessly. “I stole one of the King’s planes and came after your dumb ass.”

“You keep calling me dumb, but you got trapped in here with me, too.”

“Well, I was busy trying to save you,”

“And I was busy trying to save _you_.”

Bucky leaned back, to look at Steve’s face.

Steve didn’t know how much he could see. He, himself could only make out the faint lines of Bucky’s face.

“What a pair we make, huh?” Bucky said, softly.

Steve chuckled, “Barnes and Rogers, Brooklyn’s own troublemakers.”

“Your ma used to call us that.”

Bucky’s surprised tone at having remembered that, made Steve smile bigger than he’d done all day, “yeah, she did.”

“I miss her.” Bucky said, after a brief pause.

Steve felt his heart break and build itself together all at the same time, “I miss her, too, every single day.” He said, only slightly choked. “But I think she’d be happy to know that we have one another; that we’re taking care of each other.”

Bucky snorted, self-deprecatorily, “Fine job I’m doing, leaving you and then getting myself trapped in the same fucking trap that got you.”

Steve shrugged, moving his hand to rest gently on Bucky’s neck. “We’re doing the best we can. That’s the best _anyone_ can do, I know, that’s all she wanted for us.”

“Do you think we’ll be stuck here long?” Bucky asked, after a pause.

“Nah,” Steve thought of Natasha and Sam, a smile pulling at his lips, “knowing my friends, they’ll be here pretty soon.”

And as Steve predicted, Natasha, Sam and T’challa showed up guns blazing, not long after that.

The sunlight coming from the setting sun hurt their eyes, after so long spent without any source of light. Steve rubbed his eyes, as he half listened to Sam and Nat bitching about how they had organised an epic party for him and how he’d gone and ruined their plans, getting himself stuck in a two thousand feet deep hole, and to T’challa who was telling Bucky that if he wanted the plane he just had to ask and T’challa would’ve come with him.

As soon as his eyes got adjusted to the brightness and was about to get on the queen-jet Sam, Natasha and T’challa had come in, Steve looked at Bucky and paused.

Bucky was already looking back at him, a thoughtful look on his face.

“What is it?” Steve asked.

Bucky stopped a few feet from him, “the sun is setting,” he said, with small, sad smile. “Your birthday is almost over.”

Steve walked the few feet between them, stopping right in front of him, a quiet smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. “It’s okay, I got exactly what I wished for; I got you back.”

Bucky looked at his feet, chuckling quietly, “goddamn, Rogers,” he said. “Since when did you become a goddamn sap?”

Steve wanted to reach out and touch him, cup the place where his neck meets his shoulder; trace his cheekbones, and press his thumb on the cleft of his chin, but he didn’t. Instead, he just said, “since the day I realised how easy it is to lose you.”

Bucky met his gaze, his eyes firm and terribly soft. He leaned in and pressed his lips against his cheek, in a soft, feather-light kiss.

Then he smiled, that big, dumb smile that made his eyes bright, and that always made Steve catch his breath in his chest, and that this time almost made him sob from happiness.

Bucky cupped his face in his hands, seeing the tears in his eyes and kissed his other cheek.

“Good thing you won’t lose me again, now,” he whispered against his skin, “happy birthday, Stevie.”

**Author's Note:**

> comments are love <3
> 
> [Tumblr](http://atticuos.tumblr.com/)


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